Fighting poverty can be hard work and ONE members haven’t let up all year, winning big victories and keeping the pressure on both presidential candidates to make ending global poverty a top priority.

To say thank you for everything you’ve done, our brand new ONE Bus Tour is making a special stop in Omaha on its way from the Democratic National Convention in Denver to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis and they’re bringing a special guest, legendary musician Wyclef Jean.

If you plan on being in the Omaha area on Saturday, August 30th be sure to join us! The event is free and open to all ONE members. However, you must RSVP to attend. To RSVP for your two free tickets, click here! You must be 21 years of age or older to attend and tickets can be picked up at the will-call window on the day of the show. Space is limited and tickets are available on a first come, first served basis.

When: Saturday, August 30th, 12:00pm - 2:00pm

Where: The Slowdown, 729 North 14th Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68102

-Chris Scott

Minnesota ONE members gathered in their State Capitol today to celebrate Minnesota officially becoming a “ONE State” united against global poverty and preventable disease.

Governor Tim Pawlenty signed the ONE State proclamation at an event held in the Governor’s Reception Room at the Capitol, which was also attended by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), local faith leaders and other officials from both political parties. Gov. Pawlenty and Sen. Klobuchar showcased the ways Minnesotans can get involved in efforts to save lives from extreme poverty and preventable disease in Africa and poor regions around the world. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak (D-MN) and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman (D-MN) also signed declarations earlier in the week making their respective cities official “ONE Cities.”

Check out Fox 9 Morning News’s fantastic clip about the morning’s celebration!

ONE Field Organizer Libby Crimmings will post soon about her experience on the ground in Minnesota!

-Chris Scott

Yesterday’s International Herald Tribune covered this month’s 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City and outlined many of the most difficult challenges we face in our work. At the conference Bill Clinton concluded that “with no magic bullet in sight… the need now is to combine efforts to advance prevention and treatment.” The article also goes on to note that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed a new test that can pinpoint new infections and control them more quickly in developed countries. However, this test still needs to be “refined for use in poor countries” and many participants were unhappy with an eight-month delay in reporting the test’s success.

Reading through the article, one part stood out to me. Even in the face of an often overwhelming crisis, there remains a tremendous glimmer of hope: young people.

There were calls for innovation and recruiting more young investigators to the AIDS field. As Alan Bernstein, executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise in Manhattan, put it, “The engines of discovery are new people.” Bernstein noted that recruiting new workers should be less of a problem than in the past because of an explosion of interest on university campuses about global health.

You can read the full article here.

The ONE Campaign is excited to announce the ONE “Music Builds” Tour, featuring Third Day and Switchfoot, with Jars of Clay and Robert Randolph and thr Family Band.

The tour will kick off in Detroit on August 21st and wrap up in Denver on October 12, including 23 stops around the country. The show features video presentations from the ONE Campaign as well as two booths for concert-goers to learn more about how they can be involved in the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease around the world.

Visit www.musicbuildstour.com to learn more about the event, get the list of dates and venues, and purchase tickets.

-Emily Stivers

I want to introduce a new face around our office. Chris Scott just joined ONE’s online team - and you’ll be seeing more and more of him around the ONE Blog in the coming weeks and months.

Chris grew up in Illinois, went to school at Truman State University in Missouri and spent the last couple of years working for the Children’s Defense Fund. He’s now eager to bring his passion for helping kids to the ONE Campaign.

Take a moment and welcome Chris to our team?

-Virginia Simmons

We got this email from superstar ONE volunteer Elaine Van Cleave this morning. My favorite part: “If I ever in the past for just one second thought advocacy was useless, I can never have that thought again.”

I am back from Zambia. What a long trip home that was!! We awoke Sunday a.m. and rode in a jeep, a ferry, a bus, and 3 airplanes. You could even say we rode on a train if you count the rail in the Atlanta airport that gets you between terminals.

The experience was incredible. The extremes we encountered were mind numbing - from the incredible wild life in Botswana’s Chobe National Park to a dusty, barefooted orphan in tattered clothing beaming at you and asking you to be his friend.

One day, I tagged along on a trip to an outreach clinic 65 km into the bush. The trip was 2 hours each way on the worst sandy, bumpy road I have ever ridden on. There were 11 of us in a Land Rover provided to Mwandi Mission Hosptial by Catholic Relief Services with money from PEPFAR (US funds for AIDS relief)! The “clinic” was a two room mud hut (about 8 x 12) with a thatched roof - no electricity or running water. The clinic ended at dusk because the medical personnel could no longer see to examine patients and fill prescriptions. I mostly observed and got to see how PEPFAR money is providing medical care and drugs to people in remote rural areas who would die without it. The nurse practioner from Mwandi who goes on these weekly outreach trips into the bush told me that these clinics would not be possible without money from PEPFAR.

I also learned that Kandiana, the “old folks home” at Mwandi Mission, receives $600 a month from the Zambian government - money that is available because of debt relief. These funds also provide students at Mwandi Mission’s school with free examination books.

It is a trip I have been needing to take for a long time. I really can’t adequately put into words how powerful the experience was.

If I ever in the past for just one second thought advocacy was useless, I can never have that thought again.

If you want to read the daily blog written by Rev. Susan Clayton who lead our trip, go to www.ipc-usa.org. There are about 7 brief entries with pictures. I haven’t read them all myself and am looking forward to doing just that and to reflecting on our trip.

–Elaine Van Cleave, ONEBirmingham

On Wednesday we’re hosting a “ONE Minnesota” event at the State Capitol in St. Paul to celebrate Governor Pawlenty’s leadership in declaring Minnesota a “ONE State,” Mayor Rybak declaring Minneapolis and Mayor Coleman declaring Saint Paul “ONE Cities.”

The event will raise awareness for the issues important to the more than 28,000 ONE supporters in Minnesota and celebrate the leadership that Minnesota’s elected officials have demonstrated on both the state and federal levels.

Governor Tim Pawlenty, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Lutheran Bishop Peter Rogness, ONE member and leader of the Twin Cities ONE Group Rochelle Gibbs are all confirmed to speak. If you would like to join us for this event please RSVP here.

Way to go ONE Minnesota members!

-Libby Crimmings, MN ONE Field Organizer

Florida ONE volunteers Rafael Batista and Ryan Vassal made sure ONE was visible and our issues were heard at this Obama campaign event at the Pembroke Pines Charter High School cafeteria on August 11th. Gov. Bill Richardson hosted the event and told the volunteers: “ONE is a great organization.”

As ONE, we’ve successfully advocated for billions of dollars of aid that is having a massive impact on the lives of millions of the world’s poorest people. But perhaps just as important as advocating for more money to help put children in schools and distribute lifesaving medications is working to make sure that all aid money is spent well.

Some key figures in the fight against poverty are going to be gathering in Accra, Ghana in early September to discuss improving aid effectiveness. This gives us a key moment to pressure all the key donors like the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and World Bank to improve the quality of the aid they give.

Aid transparency is the key here. Donors need to publish detailed information about what aid projects they are funding so that recipient countries and other donors can effectively plan aid projects. With this in mind, we’re asking the key people going to the Accra summit to commit to deliver on to a set of transparency principles called Publish What You Fund. The principles are:

1. Information on aid should be published pro-actively
2. Anyone can request and receive information on aid processes
3. Information on aid should be timely and accessible
4. Information on aid should be comparable
5. The right of access to information about aid should be promoted

Please take a moment to send a letter to USAID Administrator and Director of US Foreign Assistance Henrietta Fore, World Bank President Bob Zoellick, and other leaders and ask them to agree to publish what they fund.

For more information about aid transparency and effectiveness, check out the Publish What you Fund Campaign.

On Friday, August 15, ONE members from the Pembroke Pines Charter High School, located in Pembroke Pines, Florida, met with Representative Alcee Hastings (D-FL) to talk about the accomplishments of the school’s ONE chapter, which has over 150 members including students and faculty.

The passionate students, along with their teacher Ms. Danielle De Pas, spoke about how they got involved with the ONE Campaign and how they are energizing their peers to become educated about extreme poverty. The school’s charter has been so successful that the ONE movement is now spreading beyond Pembroke Pines High School into the neighboring school districts.

In response, Representative Hastings talked about the importance of engaging young people in the political process early on so that they can help make a difference for generations to come. He hopes that the upcoming election will bring an unprecedented number of young people out to vote who want their voices heard on issues such as extreme poverty.

At the end, he commended the work of the ONE Campaign and slipped on the ONE bracelet to show his support. We thanked him for cosponsoring PEPFAR (The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and urged him to continue to support legislation that will alleviate global poverty.

The students, who are organizing a ONE event to be held at the school in January, invited the Congressman to attend and provide a few remarks. We are hopeful that he will be able to be there to show his support.

-Sara Paterni, FL Field Organizer

(Photo from left to right: Andre Riley, Rafael Batista, Rep. Alcee Hastings, Danielle DePas)